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Every since OPEC forced us to face the fact that oil and gas were not going to be cheap and available forever, increased attention has been paid to alternative energy sources. Among the most attractive of these is solar energy—clean, free at the source, resistant to monopolistic control, and plentifully available in most regions. Solar energy, which had been utilized for heating from the time of the Greek and Roman civilizations, has been rediscovered. Among those focusing on its potentialities are government, industry, conservation groups, and academic agencies. Masses of information are becoming available, variously aimed at the researcher, the consumer, community groups and specialized audiences—political, commercial, and industrial. A selection for the vertical file, including some programming aids and bibliographies useful in collection development, follows. As before, we are defining inexpensive as under $2.50 plus postage.

People whose level of activity is decreasing may need fewer calories but they also need to take greater care to maintain a balanced diet, and adequate levels of nutrients and fiber are as desirable as in their earlier years. Good nutrition for the elderly is not much different from good nutrition for any adult, but because of problems such as reduced economic circumstances and declining physical abilities the elderly may require special resources. Unfortunately, some excellent publications such as Nutrition: Background and Issues, from the 1971 White House Conference on Aging, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Guide for Older Folks (Home and Garden Bulletin 17), and Food Hints for Mature People (Public Affairs Pamphlet 336), seem no longer to be available. Among the following few items, some are specifically for the elderly and others, even though they are more general in approach, may be helpful in rounding out that section of your information files.

In recent years it has become recognized that people with a wide variety of physical handicaps—visual or hearing impairment, limb loss, or other impaired bodily functioning—can live more productive and comfortable lives if they receive appropriate information and aid and if society can overcome ancient prejudices and make reasonable adaptations. As people with various kinds and degrees of disability have come out of the closet and moved towards the mainstream of society, a wide variety of devices and aids has become available to help make life easier for them. Numerous books on this subject are available, such as the recently published An Easier Way: Handbook for the Elderly and Handicapped by Jean Vieth Sargent, and magazines such as Accent on Living. These books should not be neglected for the general collection, but your information service will be richer if they are supplemented by the following bibliographies and some of the items listed therein. Commercial catalogs, too, are often an excellent source of information on devices and products not locally known in a society which is geared to the needs of the majority.

With this issue, Collection Building reinstitutes the popular column on free and inexpensive materials developed by Kathleen Weibel in the three issues of our first volume. Most of the material included will be items suitable for the vertical files, although occasionally items will be mentioned that may be substantial enough to warrant standard cataloging and shelving as books or periodicals. Format will be unrestricted and efforts will be made to find and include nonprint materials even where some of these, such as slide sets or films, may be available for loan only. As costs of library materials continue to rise, the struggle to provide up‐to‐date information on the great variety of subjects of importance to our patrons becomes ever more difficult. Following the column's earlier pattern, we will attempt to identify and describe in each issue material on a broad topic that is free, or available for postage and handling costs, or is inexpensive. Our definition of inexpensive, alas, has risen from Weibel's $1.60 to $2.50.

The love‐object of America's romance with the automobile may have changed from the chrome‐bedecked gas guzzler of the fifties to today's trim, prim foreign model, but there is no sign that we are giving up our adoration of the personal vehicle that lets us jump in and go where and when we please—our symbol of freedom. Information resources in the library must be able to cope with all aspects of cars—from selection to maintenance, operation and protection. Here is a small sampling of the many items available for the slim pocketbook.

While Thomas Jefferson argued more than two centuries ago that the United States should adopt the metric system for its measurements, the U.S. is today the only industrialized nation of the world which has not done so. The Metric Conversion Act, passed in 1975, allowed for education about metrics, orderly planning and assistance for those interested in metric conversion. Under the Act, metric conversion is entirely voluntary and the metric system has in this country both strong supporters and ardent opponents. Here is a sampling of items that won't break the budget.

Once a taboo subject, death and dying has been considered not only a possible but a healthy topic of discussion since the pioneering work of Dr. Elizabeth Kübler‐Ross with dying patients in Chicago beginning in 1965. Since then, the widely publicized court case of the comatose young Karen Ann Quinlan, the growth of the hospice movement, and the rise of groups asserting a person's right to choose the moment and manner of death rather than undergo the prolonged suffering of terminal illness have fueled public interest. Media attention reflects this increasing public awareness—the popular 60 Minutes televised interviews with both hospice people and supporters of the right‐to‐die; a “Dear Abby” newspaper column drew over 40,000 requests to the Society for the Right to Die for information on living wills.

Recent reports show that millions of children between the ages of six and thirteen must care for themselves without a parent or other adult present during out‐of school hours. These findings have brought new public attention to a problem which has long been ignored. What can be done to help the “latchkey child” make productive and safe use of this time when no parental guidance is available and other traditional substitute care may not be affordable? A number of programs are being established around the country and elsewhere in the world to deal with this problem, for the number of “latchkey children” is growing with the trend toward family patterns in which both parents work or there is a single working parent.

Across New Hampshire citizens at town meetings are petitioning the federal government to force reductions in sulphur emissions. Canada's film, “Acid from Heaven” is being labeled “political propaganda” when it is shown to American audiences. In California, the fog stings the eye; in the Adirondacks, some lakes are now crystal clear but devoid of fish and all other life—victim, some scientists claim, of highly acidic snow melt and rain; in Wheeling, West Virginia, rain has been recorded that is sourer than vinegar. There seems to be a consensus that acid rain, the catchall term being used for all kinds of acidic deposition from the air, is a problem. Why them the controversy? In this country, the electric utilities, which emit sulphur and nitrogen compounds, the coal industry, and some scientists argue that not enough is yet known about the precise relationship between specific sources of emissions and particular damaged sites. Environmental groups, some scientists, and the New England states and Canada, which find their areas particularly threatened, argue that there is sufficient evidence to begin a cleanup now. Libraries need to be collecting information for their patrons on this hot dispute. Luckily, some of the best is free or inexpensive.

Nobody has ever liked paying taxes, but individual grumbling is growing to a loud chorus of complaints. The system of federal income taxes has become so complex that few individuals can compute for themselves what they owe and both personal and corporate financial decisions are often based more on their tax consequences than on their soundness from either a production or consumption point of view. All this leads to a perceived unfairness, with some better able than others to take advantage of preferences and loopholes in the system.